[TEC] How to clone ships and mod their strength

[tater]

I made a quick mission with a historical IJN formation for the Kido Butai. Lacking Akagi and Kaga (I was doing it as a more realistic Midway QM) I used Shokaku.

I'd like to clone Hiryu and alter it. One, I want to remove the planes on deck since IJN Cvs embarked all aircraft below decks. The Shokaku at least has them all aft, which is fine if a strike is being readied (of course then the target CV needs to be steaming into the wind at flank speed...). The Hiryu has a light sprikling of planes all over the deck, which is just silly looking. Turns out the planes are listed under eqp (? someplace, I saw them) like the sailors on deck. I can set the links to NULL, no problem. I'd like this to be a clone, however, don't wanna mess with the original. Such a clone would also get a grossly reduced air group. Since the Zeros don't attack when properly armed (no bombs), I'd have maybe 3xzero and 3xval as the entire air group to represent the CAP and ASW patrol (though the IJN didn't seem to run an ASW patrol by plane off the CV the way the USN did).

This would give a 2d version of the CV for use that wouldn't swarm the player with aircraft---which is totally unrealistic.

So, can I simply copy the entire Hiryu folder under "Sea" and change all the file names to Hiryu2 or maybe Soryu? Is there another file someplace that lists the entire ship roster that needs the change?

Thanks in advance!

tater

[tater]

Ooops, forgot part 2. The hiryu seems like a joke to sink I've sunk her with 2 torps every single time. Rolls over and goes down. Anyone else think something is wrong with that? Would be better if it didn't happen instantly since ships do repair themselves, right? Then you'd hit her, she'd list, then if you had to hid for a while she might correct the list. As it is 2 fish and she's in freefall to the bottom within 30 seconds. And yes, I have the realisitic sinking times set.

[bigboywooly]

To clone the ship its best to use pack3d

Copy the ships folder and rename all files within to the new name inc the folder itself

Open up Pack3d
latest V is fine
Point to the renamed dat file in your new ( copied ) folder
Click clone

You will also need to copy and rename the cfg file in the Roster folder
Make sure all entries in BOTH cfgs ( Roster/Japan/Sea and Sea/**New ship** ) are renamed and have the new class name inside too

example Sea folder cfg

[Unit]
ClassName=CLCleveland <----Needs to be changed to new class name
3DModelFileName=data/Sea/NCL_Cleveland/NCL_Cleveland <--Needs to be changed to new name given to folder and files
UnitType=6
MaxSpeed=32.5

Roster cfg

[UnitClass]
ClassName=CLCleveland <------New class name as above
UnitType=6
AppearanceDate=19420615
DisappearanceDate=19990325
DisplayName=US CL Cleveland <----New display name to match new class

[tater]

Cool, thanks. I will give this a try.

If it works there is a lot that can be done to make the CVs a little better. They might not work from a surface battle standpoint any more (assuming they do now), but from a sub standpoint the chances of coming across a CV while it conducts anything more than CAP ops is pretty slim.

Does the zone part need to be added as well?

[bigboywooly]

Not conversant with the SH4 file system as dont have the game yet mate

ALL files in the new copy of the Hiryu folder need to renamed to the new name and to be inside the folder when cloned

Damage/sinking times are a different issue and one I know nothing of

Not positive but!
The one ship I tried to clone with Pack3d did not clone!!!
If you check the Cleveland it's ID's did not change.

[tater]

If you have to manually change the names in an already new folder, what does the cloning actually do?

tater

[bigboywooly]

The cloning changes IIRC the object ID's so they dont conflict with the parent unit

Cloneing changes all id's in all files so they do not conflict
with other units while maintaining file id structure.